Canada’s forest industry—with its
forest “carbon sinks” and use of residual wood-generated energy—could have
an important role to play with the Kyoto Protocol and efforts to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.

By Jim Stirling

While the forest
industry is already using waste wood residues to a fairly high
level, a number of proposed initiatives could take the process even
further—and could have a positive impact on the amount of greenhouse
gas emissions.

Canada’s
stance on the Kyoto Protocol has far-reaching implications for the
nation’s forests and forestland management. The spectre of climate change
due to global warming has persuaded Canada to work toward cutting
greenhouse gas emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels by the year
2012. The February 2003 federal budget reinforced Canada’s commitment to
Kyoto, allocating $2 billion to be spent on the protocol between now and
2008. Specifics of the spending plan were not made available.

Industries like oil and gas and groups
like the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association have warned
pursuing the Kyoto strategy will cost hundreds of thousands of Canadian
jobs, contribute to economic slowdown, reduce investment and increase
consumer prices. Others dispute such dire predictions. But reducing
greenhouse gas emissions and improving wood fibre utilization have already
become an established way of doing business for Canada’s forest industry.
Wood residues produced during lumber production have stimulated creation
of new products and new industries.

Types of panel products and
heat-producing pellets are but two examples. Wood residues have also
reduced the reliance on fossil fuels by becoming the feedstock for energy
producing systems that can be used for a variety of p urposes, including
heating sawmills and running dry kilns. Utilizing wood residues to fire
large scale, co-generation electrical power plants is another method of
turning waste disposal costs into a revenue producing stream. The largest
co-generation proposal currently on the table in British Columbia is for
an estimated $120-million plant, to be built at Houston.

The Pleasant Valley Power Project would
utilize 305,000 tonnes of wood residues annually from two adjacent
mills—and another in the region—to produce about 49 megawatts of power.
The project is now being developed by Primary Power of Canada, which is
based in Ontario and is a wholly owned subsidiary of an American company.
Primary Power’s Canadian assets include three wood residue-fired power
plants, two in Alberta and one in Ontario. BC’s Canfor Corporation is one
of the forest companies slated to contribute wood residues to the Houston
project. The company has also been aggressively pursuing another
initiative: an assessment of the potential of bio-oil.

The greenhouse gas neutral fuel is
created from brown and white wood residues like sawdust, shavings and
bark. Canfor has been working with DynaMotive Energy Systems Corporation
of Vancouver on bio-fuel research. Tests conducted in 2002 at Canfor’s
now-closed Netherlands Division’s dry kilns in Prince George, BC indicated
the stable, clean burning fuel possesses a high energy efficiency. The
stakes are potentially high for Canfor. Bio-fuel could shave up to $10
million a year from the company’s heating bills. But first things first.

The next stage for Canfor is to select an
industrial-scale test site—probably at one of its sawmills in central or
northern BC—to confirm bio-oil’s reliability and cost effectiveness.
Meanwhile, DynaMotive announced it is progressing with another bio-fuel
proposal. The company has an option for 500,000 tonnes of wood residues
from L & M Wood Products of Saskatchewan to process into bio-oil. One of
the more fascinating relationships between the Kyoto Protocol and the
forest landmass are carbon sinks.

Forests are involved in the process of
carbon exchange. As trees grow, they absorb carbon from the atmosphere and
store it in their tissues. As they decompose or burn, they release carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere. The Kyoto Protocol recognizes trees and
forests as carbon sinks, which countries can claim as credits.

The Canadian Forest Service (CFS) at its
Northern Forestry Centre in Edmonton has been researching the carbon
storage power of trees since 1989. The CFS estimates 14 billion tonnes of
carbon are stored in Canada’s forests and trees. Five times as much is
stored in forest soils. Canada’s peat deposits might corral 100 billion
tonnes of carbon.

“Making sound forestry management
decisions is therefore an essential part of addressing climate change,”
says the CFS. “By improving forest productivity and reducing disturbance
to forest soils, where a large amount of carbon is stored, the carbo
sequestration within forest ecosystems may be increased. “Developing
appropriate silviculture practices will depend on understanding the status
of our forest carbon budget, how the budget has fluctuated in the past,
what role forests can play in reducing Canada’s overall atmospheric carbon
dioxide emissions and how the forest carbon cycle will be affected by
climate change.”

Lignum Ltd figures the ability of trees
to absorb carbon from the atmosphere represents a valuable, hidden asset
in its aproach to sustainable forest management practices. The
Vancouver-based company operates a sawmill complex in Williams Lake, BC.
Lignum is investigating the feasibility of using the carbon accumulation
in its forests as a marketable forest product.

And as a credit to sell to an industrial
company looking to offset its greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas
emission management is rapidly emerging as a growth industry. Canadian
energy companies in BC, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia are showing
increasing interest in carbon sequestration.

The federal government is also
encouraging further research into the subject. Last summer, $7.9 million
was dedicated to a three-year project that will see government and
university scientists across the country examining the cycling and storage
of carbon in forests and soils, and the relationship to climate change.

The notion of using carbon sinks as
credits to meet Kyoto commitments might also factor into an overall effort
to balance excessive emissions from other sectors in the national economy.
And that possibility has the provinces concerned about federal influence
in areas of their jurisdiction.

The issue encouraged BC Premier Gordon
Campbell to write a stern letter recently to Prime Minister Jean Chretien
registering his concerns. “It is estimated that our province alone could
account for all of the forest sink credit allotted to Canada under the
Kyoto Protocol,” wrote Campbell. “If the federal government is intent on
using BC’s forests to reduce Canada’s overall burden, then credit must be
provided to the province. Moreover, BC must retain its undiminished
authority and jurisdiction over its forest resources.” Judging from this,
management of carbon sinks could be well on its way to writing another
contentious chapter in federal-provincial relations.